On Oct. 29, the Ministerial Committee for Legislation was supposed to approve a new bill. The bill would have mandated that numerous West Bank settlements — including those of the Etzion Bloc (Efrat and others), Givat Zeev and Maale Adumim —– would be annexed to Jerusalem.

This is not to be confused with diplomatic annexation of the territory, and Israeli law would not be imposed on the annexed territories. The annexation is categorized as only “municipal,” and its goal is to add the residents of these settlements, about 150,000 in all, to the pool of voters for elections in the Jerusalem municipality. This was an attempt to alter the changing demographic balance of Israel’s capital city.

The bill is seen as a potentially explosive political hot potato. It was initiated by Knesset Member Yoav Kish (Likud) and Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz, two of Likud’s most senior ministers. Still, as might have been expected, at the eleventh hour it was decided to postpone the vote in the Ministerial Committee. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a source in the environs of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that the bill was postponed because of “American pressure.” And indeed, a short time afterward, American sources confirmed that such a bill would not contribute to the atmosphere that the Donald Trump administration is trying to create in the region, and would not assist the efforts being made to renew the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.